John Butcher, Guillame Viltard, Eddie Prevost – Meetings With Remarkable Saxophonists Volume 2 - December 2012 December 2nd, 2012

Eddie Prevost’s AMM, who have just released their 25th album, remain a major force in free improvisation, and inspired the ‘60s Pink Floyd’s edgier moments. Paired with John Butcher, best known nowadays for aiming his horn exploratively into the architectural voids of site-specific recordings, he and the bassist Guillame Viltard complete a superficially conventional jazz…

Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats – Blood Lust - November 2012 November 25th, 2012

Last year, Uncle Acid’s home-burned CDR, the imaginary ‘70s horror movie soundtrack Blood Lust, became a genuine word of mouth phenomenon, as opposed to a carefully orchestrated major label master-plan masquerading as a word of mouth phenomenon. Black as early Sabbath, but cautiously funky-assed and glittery in a groovy glam rock way, the mysterious and…

Martin Rossiter – The Defenestration Of St Martin - November 2012 November 25th, 2012

The reluctantly rabble-rousing Gene were a more thoughtful band than the unambiguous Britpop era allowed, but after eight years away, front-man Martin Rossiter seems uncharacteristically comfortable alone at the piano. His unadorned debut’s starkly sparse opener, a ten minute minimalist meditation on failed fatherhood entitled Three Points On A Compass, is an unequalled highpoint, but…

Sam Rivers, Dave Holland, Barry Altschul – Reunion : Live In New York - November 2012 November 18th, 2012

The saxophonist Sam Rivers, who died last December, was ousted from Miles Davis’ mid-sixties quintet for his unfettered free playing, but on his final British dates, in 2004, he seemed constrained fronting a big band playing his own formal compositions. Happily, this posthumous double CD, a 2007 set by his classic ‘70s trio of the…

The Owl Service – Garland Sessions - November 2012 November 18th, 2012

The Owl Service’s Garland of Song was released only five years ago, but the now disbanded group’s influence on the acid-folk revival means an expanded reissue is already in order. Fecund early seventies Trees and Fairport albums, and the soundtracks of contemporary pagan-themed TV and cinema, are romantically re-pointed in darkened glades lit by icy…

Darren Hayman and The Long Parliament – The Violence - November 2012 November 11th, 2012

A song cycle about 17th century Witch Trials suggests some ‘80s East Anglian Community Theatre piece, or a ‘70s National Theatre promenade, staffed by ‘60s folkies. But behind this bold and unique record lurks the thinking person’s indie pop legend, and unaccredited national treasure, Darren Hayman, late of Hefner, occasional woodwind clusters his only concession…